Shire Oak International is a leading renewable energy investor and developer of large-scale projects in the UK, Colombia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Indonesia and Vietnam. Its core mission is to be a global pathfinder in devising, implementing and spreading renewable energy solutions to drive transformational change in the adoption of renewable energy in the developing world.
Shire Oak’s experience across the solar value chain reduces risk while delivering more reliable, dependable and cost-effective solutions for its customers. Shire Oak International has developed, financed, designed and constructed a rooftop solar portfolio rapidly approaching 420 MW.
To facilitate its fast growth by digitalisation, Shire Oak selected SynaptiQ’s Asset Operations application and became one of the first companies to adopt our latest product feature upgrade: Solar Digital Twin v2.0. Since engaging 3E’s new software, Shire Oak has seen improved flexibility, performance, and monitoring across several critical business areas.
1. Monitoring and reporting at every level of operation
Shire Oak requires software to monitor and manage its expanding PV portfolio in an accurate and effective manner. With SynaptiQ, it now has a comprehensive platform to manage its day-to-day operations and data collection in addition to its contractual obligations, in-depth performance analysis and financial reporting.
Shire Oak’s portfolio of solar assets is structured in several Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) with varying ownership percentages, requiring accurate performance and financial follow-ups at both the plant and SPV levels. SynaptiQ’s Asset Operations application makes it therefore very easy for Shire Oak to automate its business processes and reporting for this purpose.
2. Hardware-agnostic compatibility
With a growing portfolio of PV plants in both operation and development, Shire Oak wants to be able to choose the best on-site hardware for each asset type: loggers and SCADA systems, power plant controllers, meteorological measurements... 3E SynaptiQ provides them the flexibility to make the best choice for every project while porting reliable and clean data and KPI’s into the platform.
3. Grid operator data integration
Shire Oak also needs efficient ways to measure and monitor the grid interaction of its solar assets. SynaptiQ easily integrates this type of data source and calculates the energy balance at the grid connection point bringing indicators such as self-sufficiency and self-consumption.
Steven Moens, Senior Sales Manager at 3E:
“Our clients have many different requirements, which is why SynaptiQ is such a powerful and flexible platform that delivers greater transparency. It allows you to monitor an entire PV portfolio from anywhere in the world.”
4. 3E’s Digital Twin
From June 2021, we have enhanced the analytical capabilities of our digital platform SynaptiQ with the launch of our newest upgrade, Solar Digital Twin v2.0. As a result, our Asset Operations users now have better insights into expected production losses and PV performance metrics while extracting greater value from the digital twin.
Werner Coppye, CTO at 3E:
“Our Solar Digital Twin v2.0, allows Shire Oak to compare the actual and expected plant performance based on detailed configuration data under measured meteorological conditions. We have thoroughly validated the digital twin against design software such as PVSYST, and discovered that detailed SynaptiQ configurations enable more accurate modelling of aspects such as inverter clipping or MPP (maximum power point) tracking.
Moreover, as our clients can now import PVSYST project files directly into SynaptiQ, investors and EPC contractors can share the same information model during each asset’s development and operational phases. In this way, they can bridge any business plan gaps and reliably map any degradation phenomena."
5. Dedicated support during onboarding and implementation
Shire Oak’s 3E partnership started with a successful pilot project, followed by a long-term agreement. During the onboarding we made sure there was one single point of contact for all technical support. This technical account manager trained Shire Oak to configure their assets and become monitoring experts while using SynaptiQ. And, thanks to 3E’s Belgian and Indian teams, we can further support Shire Oak (and our other Southeast Asian clients) in their local time zone!
Hear more from 3E’s latest happy customer
Aurèle Beaugendre, Asset Manager at Shire Oak International, concludes:
“As our company is experiencing fast-growing development with a multi-site portfolio approach, we needed an innovative solution to monitor our Assets. Using SynaptiQ, we can centralize the performance monitoring of every single site and perform contractor management in one place.
That’s a significant step in our development strategy, as it facilitates the communication between all stakeholders: developer, customers, utilities, O&M contractors and investors. It supports the Asset Manager to have not only a full portfolio picture but also real-time detail understanding of plants operation.”
If you would like to experience a demo of SynaptiQ, simply get in touch with 3E via our contact form.
Are you currently using SynaptiQ but missed the Digital Twin model based announcement? Don’t worry, you can email us via support@3Esynaptiq.com to make the switch today. Alternatively, all users will receive an automatic upgrade to the new digital twin by the end of 2021.
[Image: Mekong furniture project 3,247.8 kWp by Shire Oak]
